New Adventures in HiFi 25th Anniversary edition arrived today! 
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Man I used to LOVE going to record shows (usually at a holiday inn ballroom)!!!
eBay and online shopping killed all that…
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We go to the book fairs in St. Charles and St. Louis
A majority of my collection come from those* and local record stores.
*edited from them…on account of bad grammar.
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Yup! It was a few years ago but my friend wanted nothing to do with the internet and just loved to hunt for records. When i told him he could get anything from the net… Don’t have a clue nowadays
Maybe I’m in denial but I’ve never really considered myself a collector. The reason I have such a large music collection (vinyl, CD’s, cassettes, and digital) is because I started buying music somewhere around the age of 10. I’ve never really sought albums for their collectibility. I’m guessing the most valuable records in my collection are by R.E.M.: a first pressing of the Hib-Tone single and the fan club singles. I also have Drive-By Truckers’ first single which is much sought after. Years ago, a friend in a local metal band gave me a copy of their lone release, a single on BME Records. A few years ago on FB I noticed several collectors from overseas willing to pay through the nose for it. I believe what makes it so valuable is that only a few copies were pressed and metal heads love anything that was on that label. I ended up selling my copy for $500 but I could have gotten much more for it. The present asking price for it on Discogs is $30,000.
A few years back, someone came up with the phrase Lester Bangs’ basement in reference to the internet, meaning even the rarest of the rare could now be found online even if it was just the ability to listen to it, not own it. I believe it was with that in mind that Peter Buck made his first solo album available on vinyl only through Mississippi Records in Portland. At first, it couldn’t be ordered online, nor did any local record stores have it. I contacted them myself and they sent me an address. I passed this on to a friend that owns a couple record stores. He contacted them and a month or so later, received 5 or 6 copies of the album. My friend told me they don’t use computers, all bookkeeping is done on a legal pad. When he contacted me to let me know the records had arrived, he said Buck had signed them all and that he’d set aside a copy for me. That was the last time I really had to hunt for an album.
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I used to work for Krause Publications, the former publisher of Goldmine. The assistant editor gave me first dibs at the pick box—the extra CDs no one else had claimed. After I left KP, the assistant editor continued to send me me boxes of CDs she thought I’d like. If I didn’t want them, I’d pass them on to friends.
Anyway, as someone who was in the hobby publishing and a former price guide editor (I worked mainly with toys), collecting is always about the hunt. Always.
Pre-Internet, items were bought and sold and collecting shows and when there weren’t shows, they were bought and sold through publications like Goldmine.
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One thing I learned when working in radio is you always accepted promo CD’s from the Program Director even if you weren’t a fan of the artist. They were like currency at the local pawn shops.
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“In 1978, vinyl records were more expensive than any other time since the RIAA began tracking sales in 1973. That year, the average retail sale price of a vinyl EP/LP was $7.32 – equal to $30.18 in today’s dollars when adjusted for inflation. That was the second-highest vinyl sales year in U.S. history at 341.3 million units, behind 1977’s tally of 344 million.”
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Some of my vinyl records ( I bought most of them in '80s) still have a price tag on the plastic cover. Aus$10
Now I could pay between Aus$50 to $90. Special editions over $100.
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The most I’ve ever paid is $100 for a first pressing of “Radio Free Europe” on the Hib-Tone label. The person I purchased it from said she only played it once which was to record it and the b-side to a cassette. I stopped getting up early for Record Store Day the year R.E.M. Unplugged was released and was being sold for $100. The main reason was because I was afraid if I went and there were still some copies left, I would have purchased it, which I couldn’t afford at the time. Since vinyl has come back I believe the most I’ve paid for a new album is around $30 but it was a 2 LP set.
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The most that I ever paid for a single vinyl purchase was $100 (after shipping) for an original UK pressing of my all-time favorite album, The Cure - Seventeen Seconds.
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Today’s vinyl purchases…
Otis Redding - Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul [2012 blue vinyl reissue]
Prince and the Revolution - Live
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It was sad to hear about his passing recently 
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That moment when you already own a couple of vinyl editions of an album, but still purchase another one directly from the Rough Trade store so that you can get a signed postcard…
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I always wanted hair like that but never had the right type of hair. I was always in awe of Kate Bush, Bonnie Tyler, Julianne Houghton, Carol Decker, Meg Ryan (to name but a few) . Ah the 80s- the era of big hair 
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I also love this album (but maybe prefer Reveal). .It says so much about so many feelings we have - although that’s true of all REM tracks so a bit of a nonsense statement. I do think that those two girls who have recently covered Walk Unafraid have slightly murdered it though 
From what I remember it was root perms, lots of mousse and hair spray.
I just went for flicked sides ……
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Do collectors play their valuable first pressings and coveted whatnots? Because actually removing the shrink wrap and removing the record lowers the selling price quite a bit. A true muso would open and play it of course, but is anyone hanging on to pristine, unopened records for $$$? I guess if you’re not particularly into the artist it makes sense. Bill Cosby’s records in mint condition are probably worth a small fortune now, for all the wrong reasons.
ETA— this is all demonstrated perfectly in Toy Story 2. Which is one of my fave films of all time.
This is why I don’t particularly consider myself a collector, per se. I have maybe two records in my collection I’ve never played and never will play: a first pressing of the Hib-Tone version of “Radio Free Europe” b/w “Sitting Still” and a first pressing of Drive-By Truckers’ “Nine Bullets” b/w “Bulldozers and Dirt.” I have the amount of music I do because I started buying vinyl somewhere in the neighborhood of 1972 or so. It was never with the intention of buying records simply for their value (though I may have a handful that are worth something), it was because I love music.
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